Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and throughout western Canada, before moving on to the nightclubs of Toronto, Ontario. She moved to the United States and began touring in 1965. Some of her original songs ("Urge for Going", "Chelsea Morning", "Both Sides, Now", "The Circle Game") were recorded by other folk singers, allowing her to sign with Reprise Records and record her debut album, Song to a Seagull, in 1968. Settling in Southern California, Mitchell helped define an era and a generation with popular songs like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Woodstock". Her 1971 album Blue is often cited as one of the best albums of all time; it was rated the 30th best album ever made in Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", rising to number 3 in the 2020 edition. In 2000, The New York Times chose Blue as one of the 25 albums that represented "turning points and pinnacles in 20th-century popular music". NPR ranked Blue number 1 on a 2017 list of Greatest Albums Made by Women.
Mitchell switched labels and began exploring more jazz-influenced melodic ideas, by way of lush pop textures, on 1974's Court and Spark, which featured the radio hits "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris" and became her best-selling album. Mitchell's vocal range began to shift from mezzo-soprano to more of a wide-ranging contralto around 1975. Her distinctive piano and open-tuned guitar compositions also grew more harmonically and rhythmically complex as she melded jazz with rock and roll, R&B, classical music and non-Western beats. In the late 1970s, she began working with noted jazz musicians including Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Pat Metheny as well as Charles Mingus, who asked her to collaborate on his final recordings. She later turned to pop and electronic music and engaged in political protest. She was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards in 2002 and became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2021.
Mitchell produced or co-produced most of her albums. A critic of the music industry, she quit touring and released her 17th and last album of original songs in 2007. Mitchell has designed most of her own album covers, describing herself as a "painter derailed by circumstance".
Just Like This Train
Joni Mitchell Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Just like this train
Shaking into town
With the brakes complaining
I used to count lovers like railroad cars
I counted them on my side
Lately I don't count on nothing
The station master's shuffling cards
Boxcars are banging in the yards
Jealous lovin'll make you crazy
If you can't find your goodness
'Cause you lost your heart
I went looking for a cause
Or a strong cat without claws
Or any reason to resume
And I found this empty seat
In this crowded waiting room (Everybody waiting)
Old man sleeping on his bags
Women with that teased up kind of hair
Kids with the jitters in their legs
And those wide, wide open stares
And the kids got cokes and chocolate bars
There's a thin man smoking a fat cigar
Jealous lovin'll make you crazy
If you can't find your goodness
'Cause you've lost your heart
What are you going to do now
You've got no one
To give your love too
Well I've got this berth and this roll down blind
I've got this fold up sink
And these rocks and these cactus going by
And a bottle of German wine to drink
Settle down into the clickety-clack
With the clouds and the stars to read
Dreaming of the pleasure I'm going to have
Watching your hairline recede, my vain darling
Watching your hair and clouds and stars
I'm rocking away in a sleeping car
This jealous lovin's bound to make me
Crazy
I can't find my goodness
I lost my heart
Oh, sour grapes
Because I lost my heart
The song "Just Like This Train" by Joni Mitchell tells a story of someone who is constantly running late and feels like they'll never catch up. The train serves as a metaphor for this feeling of treading water and never quite getting ahead. The lyrics speak to the singer's past experience of counting lovers like railroad cars, but now they've given up on keeping track of love altogether. They find themselves in a crowded waiting room, surrounded by people who all seem to be waiting for something. Even the old man sleeping on his bags seems to be waiting for something, though we never find out what.
The second stanza speaks to the chaos of the train station and the bitterness that can come with jealousy. The singer observes the station master shuffling cards and the boxcars banging in the yards, while thinking about how jealousy can drive a person to madness. Without a sense of goodness or purpose, it's easy to become lost and miserable. In the final stanza, the singer reflects on their own situation and decides to settle into their train berth with a bottle of wine, content to watch the world go by. The mention of the singer's "vain darling" and their receding hairline suggests that they may be thinking about an old lover, but they've accepted that they'll never be together again and appear content to watch them fade away in the distance.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm always running behind the time
Just like this train
Shaking into town
With the brakes complaining
I'm always late and rushing, just like this train. I enter with a noise and everyone notices my arrival.
I used to count lovers like railroad cars
I counted them on my side
Lately I don't count on nothing
I just let things slide
I used to have a lot of lovers and keep track of them like train cars on a track. Recently, I've given up counting and just go with the flow.
The station master's shuffling cards
Boxcars are banging in the yards
Jealous lovin'll make you crazy
If you can't find your goodness
'Cause you lost your heart
The train station is filled with activity, but love can be overwhelming and cause madness. You need to feel good about yourself before loving someone else.
I went looking for a cause
Or a strong cat without claws
Or any reason to resume
And I found this empty seat
In this crowded waiting room (Everybody waiting)
Old man sleeping on his bags
Women with that teased up kind of hair
Kids with the jitters in their legs
And those wide, wide open stares
And the kids got cokes and chocolate bars
There's a thin man smoking a fat cigar
Jealous lovin'll make you crazy
If you can't find your goodness
'Cause you've lost your heart
I sought purpose and a strong person but found myself alone in a crowded train station full of strangers. People are waiting, and some seem troubled, but love can still drive you to madness without inner peace.
What are you going to do now
You've got no one
To give your love too
If you have no one to love, what will you do with that love?
Well I've got this berth and this roll down blind
I've got this fold up sink
And these rocks and these cactus going by
And a bottle of German wine to drink
Settle down into the clickety-clack
With the clouds and the stars to read
Dreaming of the pleasure I'm going to have
Watching your hairline recede, my vain darling
Watching your hair and clouds and stars
I'm rocking away in a sleeping car
This jealous lovin's bound to make me
Crazy
I can't find my goodness
I lost my heart
Oh, sour grapes
Because I lost my heart
I have my belongings, some scenery, and a drink to pass the time in this train car. As I relax, I dream of the future and, admittedly vainly, enjoy the thought of watching my lover's hairline recede. Love can make you crazy, especially when you don't have inner peace and have lost your heart.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Joni Mitchell
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind